The Score: Wasteland 2 composer Mark Morgan

What instruments or musical technology do you favour - is there a particular style that defines your work?

It depends on what I'm trying musically to achieve and to what means it might take to get there. I believe today you can can push the boundaries sonically by using certain instruments and sound timbers that maybe in the past would not have been considered applicable in portraying a particular visual or emotion. Although I basically work in an electronic medium, I try to keep it organic. Part of my palette as of late has an ethnic component such as gamelans, hand percussion, raw blown woodwinds mixed in with more traditional or electronic timbers. As it relates to video game projects I tend to work in the ambient world, but hope that the underlying feel and emotion of my work define me more than a particular style.

What's your approach to a video game project? Do you look to past genre works for inspiration, or work with the development team on the game's central themes before penning anything?

Usually going in you have a pretty good idea about the vibe of the project and what the producers are thinking musically. If you're lucky enough to be brought on early in the process, I find the conceptual art truly inspiring and it usually tells me what I need to know, then it's a matter of translating that musically.

How do you think gaming music has altered over the years? Has there been clear seismic changes (adoption of better audio tech, push to full symphonies etc)?

I'm not sure I can really answer that because of my scattered history scoring video games... or maybe it gives me a more unique perspective. Besides the obvious audio improvements and the before mentioned use of live orchestra, to me one of the biggest changes is that there are more and more people doing it. With that said, from a purely musical perspective, today the old cliché seems more and more relevant, that as a composer you have to, in some way, rise above the noise to find a unique voice.

Given the industry's soundscapes were birthed in chip tunes and have evolved over the past thirty years, does that give the medium a greater diversification of signature styles than say, the likes of Hollywood?

I think that could be true, and I think there could be a couple of observations why.

Games in general, including the scores, seem wide open and from the beginning didn't follow any established rules. From the subject matter to the visuals there seem to be no limits and nothing off limits. In video games, with some exceptions, musically you're not locked to a picture which gives you the freedom to write something you normally wouldn't with those restraints. I think this can and does translate musically in a more diverse way and over the years this has become evident.

To be fair, as to Hollywood and its seeming lack of diversification, one observation could be (with some obvious exceptions) that in most films for the most part you are tied musically to the picture with a large part written under dialog. It's always evolving but if the score is approached from the traditional method, which a lot of films are, it has inherent limits by dictating the style, tone, tempo and timing of the music. This is a valid approach but can sometimes stifle originality and maybe rightly give the perception over the years that Hollywood film music is not diverse.

Where and when do you work best?

In my studio for sure. It's about 20 ft. from my house and was designed for how I work, so it's really comfortable. I rarely work at night unless I'm under some deadline. I approach it almost like it's a 9 to 5 although it's really 8 to 4 or maybe 7 to 3.

One question, two different angles. What's been your favourite piece of music to work on (and why), and secondly, what would you rate as your all time favourite piece of gaming music (that you weren't personally involved in?)

I really don't have a favorite piece of music per say but for me in most cases it's more of a vibe or feel. Because of a strong and heavy subject matter found in video games and television as well, I tend to gravitate and I'm drawn to a darker themed, emotive style of music.

Many of my musical influences come from some diverse and varied places. From those I do have favorites but I'm not privy to certain video game scores be it past or present.

What do you think about the work Tommy Tallarico has done in promoting video game music through the VGL series?

Anything that can promote video game music is a good thing. It would be interesting along those lines to do something similar with non-orchestral video game scores.

Is the acceptance of video game music a non-issue, given its celebrated by industry fans and performed live anyway? Or do you personally find it a stereotype to overcome in wider media and social circles?

I personally find it still is an issue in certain circles outside the world of gaming. Even in similar genres where the music can be interchangeable there still seems to be a strange bias that needs to be overcome.

Gaming music has been championed to be brought into the Classic FM Hall of Fame for many years - is this the right place for it to be celebrated?

Maybe for a certain style of game music but not sure for alternative styles.

Old argument: the less tech game composers had to work with meant they had to get more inventive, and as such bred more iconic themes. True? Or is it same problem, just a bigger tool set?

I think it's the same from a thematic point of view. From the production side, having access to all the libraries and virtual stuff available, it's made it easier without much effort to program a good sounding and completed track. With everybody having this access to the same content you have to be more inventive to again rise above the noise, so maybe in this case just a bigger tool set.

Video Games Live set the standard, but with the likes of the Final Fantasy and Zelda concerts, live shows of video game music seem to be gaining traction. Have you noticed a shift in perception and acceptance of gaming music?

I think it is gaining some traction, but I think it's still insulated in the gaming world and skewed to a certain style of game music which in some ways doesn't represent the industry as a whole. If you're not directly involved as a developer, producer or as an avid or part time gamer, I'm not sure much has changed.

Secondly, what next steps do you think need to be taken to expand the accessibility and growth of the music scene?

To that point by going back to the question you posed earlier about diversity. I hope in the future, game music doesn't fall into the same dilemma or perception Hollywood has from time to time. Like in its inception, it needs to keep pushing the limits and experiment with different techniques and styles which will do justice to the genre and make it viable way into the future.

Has digital marketplaces such as iTunes and Amazon opened the doors to producing and releasing game soundtracks at retail as a viable business?

I'm not sure from the business side how viable it really is, but it's made it easier for composers to get their music out there and make it accessible to the public.

Wasteland 2's OST comes bundled with the Digital Deluxe version of the game on Steam and GOG, and will be released on iTunes in the near future. You can listen to samples from the soundtrack on Morgan's
official website.